Isle woman wins $87,439
against Arby’s operator

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

Shawn Smith began as a cashier at Arby's restaurant in Kaneohe after graduating high school in 1987 and worked her way up to general manager by 1994.

Arby's was her life until she got pregnant.

Smith, 27, took maternity leave. The day before her scheduled return to work in late June 1994, the company said it couldn't take her back.

The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission recently awarded Smith $87,439 in damages from being sexually discriminated against by the former franchise holder of Arby's, Taberu Management Inc.

Smith dropped her complaint against franchise owner Arby's Inc. after reaching a confidential settlement.

The Civil Rights Commission award included $27,439 in back pay and $60,000 in compensatory damages. Smith will receive the entire award.

It is one of the commission's largest awards to a working mother denied reinstatement because of pregnancy, said enforcement attorney Paul Nahoa Lucas.

"I'm really proud of her," said Lucas, who argued her case.

Smith declined to talk with the media but asked Lucas to speak for her.

"I think she feels victorious," Lucas said. "She is a survivor. She's pleased by the decision and is taking it one step at a time."

Hawaii's law states employers "shall -- not may," reinstate an employee after she returns from maternity leave, Lucas said.

"You don't treat them as an oddity," he said. "It put her and her family in desperate financial straits."

When Smith lost her job, she lost medical insurance for her family of four. The Smiths also lost their new townhouse, and her former employer refused to give her a reference letter.

"She lost her self-worth," Lucas said. "Despite all that, she picked herself up."

Smith's husband was also on disability from a severe allergic reaction to chemicals from his job.

Taberu Management argued since the company was selling the store, it wasn't obliged to bring Smith back from maternity leave, Lucas said.

Smith even agreed to take a 20 percent salary cut to return, and the employee occupying her position volunteered to resign to let Smith return.

"They said nothing was ever promised her," Lucas said. "If they had simply included her as an employee on the payroll, she would have been picked up by the next employer who bought the store. You can't ignore these people. You can't just get rid of them."

Representatives of Taberu Management, a Japanese company, could not be reached for comment.

Smith filed her complaint with Hawaii Civil Rights Commission a month after she lost her job.

After 15 months of searching for a job, Smith found an accounting position at $8 an hour, a big cut from her $13-an-hour Arby's job.

Smith eventually was rehired by her original employer, who had hired her out of high school, sold the store, then bought the Arby's franchise back, Lucas said.

Today, Smith works as a district manager, overseeing three Arby's stores, Lucas said.